AMES, Iowa — Jon Heacock has been coaching defense for 35 years. He’s never gone through a season quite like he did last year.

Iowa State’s defensive coordinator leaned back in his office chair last month and told the story behind how the Cyclones pulled off their stunning transformation on defense in 2017. The turnaround, he says, began with a bold act: This staff threw its playbook in the trash during the team’s idle week, three games into the season.

“Everything we knew, we shoved it off the desk and basically started from scratch,” Heacock told The Athletic.

The Cyclones’ new plan arose out of an effort to solve a tricky question: How do we get our best 11 players on the field? Who gives us the best chance to win?

They arrived at the first step of the reset: Let’s take a vote. They ended up selecting three defensive linemen, three linebackers, three safeties and two cornerbacks. That’s where it all started.